A-Z Films
100% ARABICA
DIRECTED BY MAHMOUD ZEMMOURI
FRANCE and ALGERIA / 1997 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 90 MIN
SYNOPSIS
In a housing project located on the outskirts of Paris renamed "100% Arabica" by its inhabitants, African immigrants live side by side. The residents are united by their struggle for recognition in a society where immigrants are often regarded as second class citizens. In a world of exiles, poverty is the common denominator. Against this backdrop, director Zemmouri has brought together two of the biggest and most charismatic stars of the cross-cultural musical form known as Rai, Cheb Mami and Khaled, who play the leaders of a band called Rap Oriental. As the band of musicians starts to gain in popularity, the Imam of the local mosque (Mouss) tries to destroy them by stirring up racial and cultural tensions. However, no one can stop the infectious popularity of the songs in this story of music triumphing over bigotry and violence.
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DIRECTOR AND CAST
Director: Mahmoud Zemmouri
Starring: Cheb Mami
Starring: Khaled
Starring: Mouss
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BONUS
ROTATING SQUARE
DIRECTED BY AHMED HASSOUNA
EGYPT / 2002 / ARABIC WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 14 MIN
SYNOPSIS
Sami and his wife Sarah are packing to move to the USA where they intend to open a restaurant. Rania, Sarah's sister, goes to their house to take them to the airport, but some unexpected and unforeseeable events take place in the apartment: games of seduction, murder and dead bodies to be disposed of. A surrealist comedy by Ahmed Hassouna who belongs to a new group of young promising Egyptian filmmakers.
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DIRECTOR AND CAST
Director: Ahmed Hassouna
Starring: Rasha Mahdy
Starring: Bassem Samra
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GENRES
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ACES
DIRECTED BY NTANDAZO "DIDI" GCINGCA
SOUTH AFRICA / 1999 / ENGLISH / 17 MIN
SYNOPSIS
Aces is the story of a young man who fights against the battering of his mother by his drunken father. The situation escalates until Ace desperately stabs his father to death, and is sent to jail for a period of 15 years. Nine years later he is out on parole. He kills again within a day's time of his release.
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DIRECTOR AND CAST
Director: Ntandazo "Didi" Gcingca
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GENRES
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Portrait of two leaders of the Pan-African Liberation Movement: Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral.
Using rare archival footage, director Ana Lucia Ramos Lisboa accurately chronicles both the personal and public sides of an African icon in Amilcar Cabral (Cape Verde/ Portugal, 2001, 52 mins., in Portuguese with English Subtitles). The founder of the African Party for Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), Amilcar Cabral led the Liberation Movement against Portugal for those countries.
Frantz Fanon
In the documentary Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work (Algeria/France, 2001, 52 mins., in French and Arabic with English subtitles), director Cheikh Djemai uncovers and interviews scores of former associates of Frantz Fanon, a psychiatrist, philosopher and political leader. He became a spokesperson for the Algerian revolution against French colonialism, and as the author of Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon documented the effects of colonialism and racism on the people of colonized countries.Amilcar Cabral
Amilcar Cabral was the leader of the Liberation Movement of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau and the founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC). He was born in Guinea in 1924 and assassinated in Conakry in 1973. Regarded as a true icon of African history, this documentary provides considerable background to this revolutionary giant and reveals Cabral in several dimensions: as a man, a father, politician, humanist and poet.
The documentary is skillfully produced and uses a wealth of rare archive footage, balanced inclusion of varied testimonies of important African personalities and the credible recreation of notable episodes of Cabral's life.
Two African Griots connect Africa and the World: Youssou N’Dour in “Return to Gorée by Pierre-Yves Borgeau, Sotigui Kouyaté in Names Live Nowhere by Dominique Loreau and Sotigui, a Modern Griot by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. DVD also includes Youssou N’Dour’s live concert performance on Gorée Island.
RETURN TO GOREE Film and Concert
RETURN TO GOREE follows Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour's historical journey tracing the trail left by enslaved Africans and the jazz music they invented. Youssou N'Dour's challenge is to bring back to Africa a jazz repertoire of his own songs to perform a concert in Goree, the island that today symbolizes the slave trade and stands to honor its victims. With Youssou N'Dour, Moncef Genoud, Joseph Ndiaye, Idris Muhammad, and Amiri Baraka among others.
DVD includes filmed final concert on the Goree Island.
RETURN TO GOREE / CONCERT, Pierre Yves Borgeaud, Senegal/Switzerland/
Luxembourg, 2006, 108 min. / 52min. In English and French with English subtitles.
NAMES LIVE NOWHERE & SOTIGUI KOUYATE, A MODERN GRIOT
NAMES LIVE NOWHERE (Les Noms N'Habitent Nulle Part) - whose title is a Senegalese proverb - a griot (story teller) traveling from Dakar to Brussels weaves a tale about African expatriates and offers a candid look at the life of African immigrants in Belgium. With Sotigui Kouyate - a real life griot - as the story teller.
SOTIGUI KOUYATE, A MODERN GRIOT dresses the portrait of one of Africa's greatest actor (1936-2010). From Africa to Europe, the film unveils the multiple facets of Sotigui Kouyate, actor, musician and modern griot.
NAMES LIVE NOWHERE / A MODERN GRIOT, Dominique Loreau / Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Belgium/ France, 1994 / 1996, 76min / 58min. In French with English subtitles.
Two fiction films that explore the life of women in Africa. Set in Burkina Fasso AN UNCOMMON WOMAN is a comedy about a cuckold woman who decides to take a second husband. CAPE VERDE MY LOVE is drama that takes a critical look at the lives of women in contemporary Cape Verde.
AN UNCOMMON WOMAN
Mina is tired of her husband's infidelity and decides to take a drastic decision: She takes a second husband. Based on his conversations with women involved in polygamist relationships, he illustrates - to very funny effects - the daily life of two persons - in this case two men - who share a spouse. On a comedic tone, Abdoulaye Dao tells us a story of jealousy, infidelity, romance and revenge. Directed by Dao Abdoulaye, 2009, 101 min, Burkina Faso, Comedy, French with English subtitles.
An Uncommon Woman-Une Femme Pas Comme Les Autres- was a success in its native Burkina Faso and is cast with some the best actors of Burkinabe cinema.
Official selection, African Diaspora International Film Festival 2010.
CAPE VERDE MY LOVE
Praia, Cape Verde. Laura, Flavia and Bela are childhood friends. Each leads her own life and they sometimes meet to dance, dine and have fun. But one day the calm rivers of their lives break their banks and become wild torrents: Ricardo, Flavia's husband, rapes his pupil Indira, Laura's 13-year old eldest daughter. A film that takes a critical look at the lives of women in Cape Verde .
By Ana Lucia Ramos Lisboa, 2007, Cape Verde, Drama, 77min, Cape Verdean Portuguese w/ English subtitles.
ASHAKARA
DIRECTED BY GERARD LOUVIN
BURKINA-FASO, TOGO, SWITZERLAND, AND FRANCE / 1991 / FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES / 90 MIN
SYNOPSIS
Set in Togo, West Africa, Ashakara is a modern African tale. An African doctor finds a cure to a deadly virus and decides to mass produce the drug at low cost in Africa. However, a pharmaceutical multinational does not want the doctor to succeed and sends an agent to Africa first to buy the drug then to destroy it...Mixing action, suspense, good humor, and a lucid depiction of the contemporary African continent, Ashakara entertains and educates all at once.
Official Selection, Cognac International Festival of the Thriller, 1992
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DIRECTOR AND CAST
Director: Gerard Louvin
Starring: James Campbell
Starring: Jean-Marc Pasquet
Starring: Willy Monshengwo
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GENRES
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